Joint Police Committee considers policies for reform plan

MILLERTON —  To better enhance its knowledge of the Millerton Police Department’s (MPD) existing policies and procedures and what should be addressed in its police reform plan, the Joint Village of Millerton and Town of North East Police Committee gathered for an informational meeting over Zoom on Wednesday, Feb. 10.

The 6 p.m. meeting was live streamed to the “Village of Millerton VOM” Facebook page. In addition to the committee members, Mayor Debbie Middlebrook and town Supervisor Chris Kennan attended, though Village Clerk Kelly Kilmer said they were there as audience members only.

After the meeting was called to order, Trustee and committee member Matthew Hartzog thanked those attending for their feedback at the Dutchess County Police Reform public hearing on Monday, Feb. 8 (for more on the public hearing, see article on the front page).

Addressing a request to make the department’s policies more available to the public, Hartzog said the village intends to post the MPD policies on the village website, www.villagofmillerton.net, and that he hopes the town will do the same. 

Village Trustee and committee member Joshua Schultz noted the 55 MPD policies currently in place that could easily be put online, where they could be redrafted and updated when needed. He said they should be posted on the website for the sake of transparency and to get community input.

“I think the sooner that we could see it, the better, because we don’t have a lot of time to get this plan created,” North East Councilwoman and committee member Lana Morrison said.

Committee members turned their questions regarding the MPD’s existing policies and procedures over to Millerton Police Officer in Charge Mike Veeder. Though some questions were inspired by what was discussed at the county’s public hearing, committee members also asked about the department’s procedures for stops and arrests; its community engagement and outreach efforts; whether the force has a mission statement; and the MPD’s role versus the role of the New York State Police and the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office.

Hartzog asked Veeder to walk those present through the process of what happens when an officer’s body camera is turned on, how the information is uploaded to the server and how long the information is kept on the server. 

In addition to the body cameras, Veeder said the police have a dash camera system on their vehicles’ dashboards and a rear seat prisoner camera, and that it’s the officers’ responsibility to test the equipment at the beginning of each shift to make sure it’s operational. Listing the various triggers for turning on the cameras, Veeder said the cameras are turned on anytime an officer encounters the public and the information from the cameras automatically syncs back to the server. 

Responding to Councilman and committee member Ralph Fedele’s question about performance evaluations for each officer, Veeder said a benefit of the body camera system is that he can go through the videos and review with his officers what they’ve done well and where they can improve.

Since the MPD is a part-time force, Fedele asked if its schedule could be changed to include more daytime shifts. Veeder said that’s difficult as the officers have other full-time obligations — some work in other departments during the day — but added he could move hours around to try to accommodate more daytime schedules. 

Responding to Fedele’s question about the normal procedure for a stop, Veeder said he typically introduces himself to the driver and asks for their license, registration and credentials to identify them, though he mentioned “there’s no set in stone [procedure] for how you need to talk to motorists on a traffic stop.”

Hartzog asked if the department has any policy for dealing with hate crimes, to which Veeder said it depends on each incident and specific crime. If there’s an incident and the MPD believes it needs to contact the Sheriff’s Office for support, he said the Sheriff’s Office will set up a crime scene, a technician will come and process the scene for them or the MPD can turn the scene over to the Sheriff’s Office, since it has more capability and manpower to handle it.

Schultz reminded the committee that it has until Thursday, April 1, to adopt the police reform plan under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s mandate that all police agencies statewide adopt a police reform plan by that date or risk losing state aid, which means the committee needs to have a draft by mid-March. 

Morrison commented that reviewing the MPD’s current policies and procedures is a good starting point, after which time the committee must figure out how to augment and organize the information. The committee, noting the tight schedule it has to accomplish its goal, agreed to get together once a week until its mission is accomplished.

For more on the state’s push for police reform, read this week’s front page article about the county’s public hearing on the MPD’s policies and procedures and make sure to check out this week’s editorial on the issue on Page B4.